Cleaning up pictures on my desktop...

As ou can guess by the title, I found a pair of pics on my desktop that I have been meaning to blog about but never got around to. First up, I discovered how Youtube REALLY works.
And second, I did take the World's Shortest Political Quiz. To be honest, I was not surprised by the outcome: I am a centrist with liberal and libertarian tendencies.

45 minutes = $50,000

How much damage can a 7 and 10 year old cause? $50,000! I suspect the ten year old will spend some time in a juvenile detention center, the parents' insurance premium will rapidly increase if they don't lose it entirely. And besides the punishment from the parents, the 7 year old gets away with it. (Well, if he were my son I would make him do a large number of chores for the owner(s) of the home he destroyed nearing 50k in value).

Rollin' Down To Old Oahe

Well, I came up with a parody of Rollin' Down To Old Maui based upon my return to SD. he original is one of my favorite whaling songs, what do you think of my parody?

It's a damn tough life full of toil and strife
We civils undergo.
And we don't give a damn when the day is done
How hard the winds did blow.
For we're homeward bound from the Yakima ground
With a good truck, taut and free
And we don't give a damn when we drink our rum
With the girls of Old Oahe.

(chorus)
Rolling down to Old Oahe, me boys
Rolling down to Old Oahe
We're homeward bound from the Yakima ground
Rolling down to Old Oahe.

Once more we cruise with a westerly gale
Through the ice and wind and rain.
Them native maids, them midwestern glades,
We soon shall see again.
twelve hellish months have passed away
One the dry Sagebrush Sea,
But now we're bound from the Yakima ground
Rolling down to Old Oahe.

chorus

Once more we cruise with a westerly gale
Towards our midwestern  home.
Our cargo secured, our traffic engineering done,
And we ain't go far to roam.
Our stuns'l bones is carried away
What care we for that sound?
A living gale is after us,
Thank God we're homeward bound.

chorus

How soft the breeze through the cottonwood trees,
Now the sagebrush is far astern.
Them native maids, them midwestern glades
Is a-waiting our return.
Even now their soft brown eyes look out
Hoping some fine day to see
Our baggy tarp runnin' 'fore the gales
Rolling down to old Oahe.

chorus

Blog-block

I am blogging less often than I used to, but why? While I was in Yakima I blogged nealy everyday, even going 100 straight days with a post! But what happened?

Well, I felt the same as my KC friend while I was living in Yakima. But since I have returned to Pierre, SD, I have spent more time outdoors (kayaking, mnt biking) and I have spent more time with friends, thanks to close proximity of a few college friends and my willingness to drive a few hours. Also, football season (both college and NFL) has also hindered my blogging.

Well, as the winter progresses, I should be able to blog more often. My outdoor activities will go away, leaving me with working out at the YMCA.

Boxes

I haven't mentioned work at the SDDOT Office of Bridge Design (OBD) in a while, so here you are...

The past couple of weeks I have been working on some box culvert layouts (pre-design), rather simple but still needs to be done before the design phase. Well, the last couple of days I worked on a huge box culvert layout that will be replacing a small bridge over the Fall River in Fall River County, SD. It is a 5 barrel 14ft x 13ft (span x rise). Meaning 5*14+6*9.5/12 (9.5" walls) or 74 ft 9 inches wide! And annoyingly, it was skewed at 55 degrees and did not use standard wingwalls... oh well.

Picture Perfect Monday

It's October and I have been kayaking?! I went on saturday but that is not the topic of this post. Later on on saturday, I was down by the (Missouri) river (well, what else do you expect from a pirate?) and took some great pictures of the fall scenes and sunset.

Three Item Thursday!

1. Before I get into the "real" news... I might as well own a home. I have been doing yardwork this week and I don't even ppwn a yard! First of all, I cleaned out my parent's gutters earlier this week and managed to cut my hand twice on them. Second, today I hauled leaves, crabapples, etc. to the yardwaste dropoff. OK alright, I didn't do that much yardwork and I really don't mind helping my parents after all they have done for me. But griping can be fun to!
2. Thanks to my loyal Navigator, I am now the proud owner of a Garmin GPSmap 60Cx. I decided to tryout this crazy fad called geocaching and I actually had fun this evening. I think I discovered my next hobby ;) Below is where I found a cache at tonight:
3. But most importantly, GAS HAS DROPPED BELOW $2 IN SOUTH DAKOTA, while remaining at or above $2.42 in Washington... Take that Yakima! ;)

Have Camera, Will Travel

First off, I apologize for not blogging in the last week. I do not have any excuses; I just didn't take the time to blog.

I did manage to use my camera between Thursday and today, so I will share with you some of my recent pics.

Capitol Creek in Pierre, SD flowing near the DOT building.

The SD Capitol Building.

Well, I went to Rapid City this weekend for M-Day, so...

The new Exit 60 interchange:

It used to be a non-standard interchange, where westbound traffic exited from the left land and not all movements were provided. But now it is a single-point interchange.

Another, closer, shot:

Ah, Dunn Brothers!

The best coffee!

Sadly, I rarely thought to take a picture while in Rapid but I did take the time to snap a few more shots on my way back to Pierre.

The leaves changing alongthe Bad River:

"Something" that slowed down my trip home. It sortof looks like a hull but I think it probably is a storage tank/bin for something.

And some leaves changing in Pierre: